EXTERNAL POLL: What are your A-model suspension settings?

Since I'm just getting into the art of suspension tweaking, I figured I'd create a 5-question poll at SurveyMonkey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R2DNWYM

It appears to be working the way that I'd hoped, where the resultant percentages are linked to responses. It's free, it's anonymous, etc. etc..

Thought it might be of use to get data points on the median of each of the five settings, and even get a sense of the outliers. I’ve seen a two or three “recipes” for settings by individual riders, but not a broad selection that may suggest the optimal generalized average for each of the five settings on a bike with stock suspension. This SurveyMonkey survey should illustrate that.

Hope many here will answer the five-question survey...would be great to get a sense of what the median recipe is. Please note: Those who vote can see the cumulative results/percentages after they finish, but the survey doesn’t appear to allow repeat visits to check on add’l votes and percentage changes...just says you’ve already voted. So I’ll post numbers a couple times a day on this thread, if/as they change.

This is a new one on the forum. We've had many polls using the forum system including suspension ones, but never one outside I can remember.

Not sure if I'm going to participate in one personally that goes to an external website, but I'm sure the good folks on this forum can make that decision themselves. I did, however, modify your title slightly to reduce confusion with how internal polls title threads.

Good luck!

The Management

I've participated in surveys via Surveymonkey on other forums. It never seemed to be a problem. Just my 2 centavos.

Suspension settings are often based on personal preference and are always a trade off between comfort and performance. When you order a custom shock from Penske or Wilbers, two questions they always ask is about the weight that will be carried and the rider’s intended riding style. Poll results aren’t going to be very meaningful unless you can tie those variables to the responses.

I would think the rider's weight would be an important item relative to these settings...

Dan

Thanks, Ignacio.

I made sure to SurveyMonkey, a well-known site that I'd used before for other matters with no issues, to hopefully quell whatever privacy/phishing/etc. concerns folks might have for visiting an external poll. In my experience, it's about as safe as it gets in that regard.

Incidentally, I used an external platform because I assume (hopefully not erroneously) that the software here would not support a complex, multi-question survey with up to 10+ individual responses for each of the questions.

dcumpian said:

I would think the rider's weight would be an important item relative to these settings...
Dan

Click to expand...

I would agree that would increase context, but there are simply too many variables (weight, riding style, age of shocks, etc.) like that to incorporate and still have a basic, workable *generalized* survey where an apples-to-apples comparison can be made. The best that can be done for something like this is assuming a stock bike with a rider of average weight. Plus, if the rider is on the extreme upper and lower end of the weight range, chances are decent that his settings will also be the outliers.

We currently have 14 respondents...it'd be great to get a bigger (and presumably more accurate) sampling, so if you're considering participating, please do...I'll post interim results tonight.

With GP forks and Penske shock my feedback won't be much help.

Interested to see the results though.

--G

Great survey, and nice to see the results after you answer the questions, nice feature of Survey Monkey. Only got one question wrong as I always run the rear spring hard when solo.

I'd answer it, in fact I started. BUT:

My front springs are worn and being replaced shortly, and my back is a wilbers. I have no idea of its settings, and definitely no hard or soft levers

In the one day this has been up, the survey has received 18 respondents. Here is the outcome thus far...if the survey receives 25 total responsdents, I'll reevaluate for any changes and report back.

A couple notes of interest: 1). the mode of the range for front preload is 2 lines, which I thought was surprisingly firm, and 2). the rear rebound mode is 5 - 6, but 11 - 12 is quite close but leaping the numbers in between the two options, so this is the setting that seems to have the least consensus and follows a different bell curve than the others.

If we put all this together, the mode recipe / average setting configuration is 2 lines for front preload, 7 - 8 clicks for front rebound damping, 9 - 10 clicks for front compression damping, 5 - 6 clicks for rear rebound damping, and Soft for the rear preload spring.

I hope everyone found this of some interest, and I appreciate the help of those who responded to the survey so we can all learn. As indicated above, I'll keep the survey open for a bit longer and see if we can hit 25 or more, at which time I'll update the figures.

Finally, here are the charts:

For clarification, changing the preload on the front forks does NOT make the ride firm or soft, it changes the front ride height which in turn changes the steering geometry (by changing the trail) and makes the steering faster or slower. Six lines showing will result in the lowest ride height and the fastest steering.

MCRIDER007 said:

For clarification, changing the preload on the front forks does make the ride firm or soft, it changes the front ride height which in turn changes the steering geometry (by changing the trail) and makes the steering faster or slower. Six lines showing will result in the lowest ride height and the fastest steering.

Click to expand...

I appreciate the clarification; what you describe was not my assumption of the adjustment. I'm just getting started on this whole suspension trek, and still have much to learn. This survey was designed to, I hope, help folks like me that need a bit of experienced guidance, and clarifications like that add to that education.

I answered it. I have custom suspension now, so things are different, but I answered according to how things were set when I was still running OEM forks and the shock. Hope that helps.

HotRodZilla said:

I answered it. I have custom suspension now, so things are different, but I answered according to how things were set when I was still running OEM forks and the shock. Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

HRZs response was a wake up to me that the poll does not specify what generation of FJR is being polled. The GEN1 and GEN2 suspensions had similar spring rates and damping....the spring rates for the GEN3s are significantly heavier and the GEN3s also have much better damping. I suggest the poll be limited to GEN3 A models....which would be 2013A and newer.

MCRIDER007 said:

HotRodZilla said:

I answered it. I have custom suspension now, so things are different, but I answered according to how things were set when I was still running OEM forks and the shock. Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

HRZs response was a wake up to me that the poll does not specify what generation of FJR is being polled. The GEN1 and GEN2 suspensions had similar spring rates and damping....the spring rates for the GEN3s are significantly heavier and the GEN3s also have much better damping. I suggest the poll be limited to GEN3 A models....which would be 2013A and newer.

Click to expand...

Good point; it would be ideal to limit it to a specific Generation.

However, I was aware to some degree that the suspension settings may vary slightly from Generation to Generation due to later upgrades in quality design and parts, but I didn't want to do three (or two, Gen I & II and Gen. III) different polls because I knew the participation/response for each would be commensurately lessened (since you're cutting audience response by two (or three)) which inherently skews the accuracy of generalized results, and I figured the difference wasn't enough to introduce substantive poll bias into this non-scientific, informal survey.

Heck, you also have the age of the suspension units (old, never replaced Gen. 1 units vs stock Gen. 1 replacements vs Gen. II old, never replaced, etc.) to riding style (sporty tight suspension settings vs looser touring suspension settings) to rider weight, etc. etc...there are a lot of variables that just can't be incorporated in a casual survey like this one. This survey wouldn't pass muster with the academic community, of course, but for the informal purpose of our community just getting a general idea of what the most common settings are for the FJR, I hope this survey of a broad Generational swath of FJR owners will do that.

The survey now has 25 respondents, so I thought an update is called for. I'll let the survey go another week or so and if there is an additional contingent that votes and changes the results, I will report back one last time.

Here are the current results. They are the same as the previous 18-vote result tally, except that Question #3 (front compression damping) was previously 9 - 10 clicks but is now 7 - 8 clicks.

Here are the current results:

Front pre-load: 2 lines with 36% of the vote. Next was 3 lines with 28%.

Front rebound damping: 7 - 8 clicks with 32% of the vote. Next was 5 -6 clicks with 24%.

Front compression damping: 7 - 8 clicks with 32%. Next was 9 - 10 clicks with 28%.

Rear rebound damping: 5 -6 clicks with 32%. Next was 11 - 12 clicks with 24%.

Rear spring preload: Soft with 64%.

My thanks to those who voted in the survey so that we can all see what the most common/typical settings are among FJR owners to use (or not use) as we deem appropriate for our own rides.

RC65 said:

MCRIDER007 said:

For clarification, changing the preload on the front forks does make the ride firm or soft, it changes the front ride height which in turn changes the steering geometry (by changing the trail) and makes the steering faster or slower. Six lines showing will result in the lowest ride height and the fastest steering.

Click to expand...

I appreciate the clarification; what you describe was not my assumption of the adjustment. I'm just getting started on this whole suspension trek, and still have much to learn. This survey was designed to, I hope, help folks like me that need a bit of experienced guidance, and clarifications like that add to that education.

Click to expand...

Dont feel bad. Many self proclaimed suspension gurus dont understand preload either. MCRIDER gave it to you right, except he meant to say that changing front fork preload does *NOT* make the ride stiffer or softer, just alters the ride height. Based on your reply I think you already figured that out.